Methods and systems for updating database tags for media content

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for a media guidance application that can automatically, or with little human interaction, identify characteristics of media content (e.g., sub-genres, minor actors, etc.) and generate appropriate tags for that media content. The media guidance application can thus facilitate user searches based on specific and narrowly tailored search terms (e.g., sub-genres, minor actors, etc.).

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users typically have access to a plethora ofmedia content. In fact, users have access to so much media content usersoften need help in navigating available media content and finding mediaassets for consumption. To alleviate such problems, conventional systemsoften allow users to search the available media content based on variouscriteria such as the cast and crew, genre, broadcast time, etc. Whilesuch a feature is helpful, it is also limited to the specificity withwhich a user may search. For example, while a user may search by thename of the lead actor to receive media asset listings featuring thatactor, the user typically cannot search by an actor with a minor role.In another example, while a user may search a genre (e.g., “horror”),the user typically cannot search by a sub-genre (e.g., “slasher”).

The limitation in terms by which a user may search is due to the lack oftags (e.g., descriptive metadata) that accompany media assets. Forexample, while tags for broad search categories may be automaticallydetermined for individual media assets from published descriptions, moredetailed tagging for use in allowing more detailed searches is noteasily determinable. In fact, in many cases, detailed tagging (e.g.,indicating a sub-genre or minor actor) must be done manually by a humanoperator, which is both time consuming and expensive.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are described herein for a mediaguidance application that can automatically, or with little humaninteraction, identify characteristics of media content (e.g.,sub-genres, minor actors, etc.) and generate appropriate tags for thatmedia content. The media guidance application can thus facilitate usersearches based on specific and narrowly tailored search terms (e.g.,sub-genres, minor actors, etc.).

To identify various characteristics of media content, the media guidanceapplication may mine metadata, subtitles, closed captioning data,textual descriptions, etc., about a media asset. Furthermore, the mediaguidance application may perform various analyses on the mined data toidentify characteristics about the media asset. These characteristicsmay then be compared to known characteristics of media assets associatedwith a selected tag. Based on the comparison, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether or not to tag the media asset with theselected tag.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may select a media assetrecord from a first database, in which the first database lists aplurality of available media asset records. For example, the mediaguidance application may store a database that lists each availablemedia asset as well as the various characteristics and/or tagsassociated with a particular media asset.

The media guidance application may process the selected media assetrecord to determine a plurality of keywords corresponding to a selectedmedia asset record. For example, the media guidance application mayanalyze the subtitles or textual descriptions associated with a givenmedia asset to determine keywords associated with the media asset.

The media guidance application may then store a plurality of keywordvectors in a second database, in which each keyword vector correspondsto a keyword of the plurality of keywords, and in which a dot productbetween two keyword vectors of the plurality of keyword vector indicatesa level of similarity between respective keywords of the two keywordvectors. For example, the media guidance application may apply latentsemantic analysis to generate a series of keyword vectors, in which thevector indicates a meaning of the keyword based on the words surroundingthe keyword. For example, by applying latent semantic analysis, themedia guidance application may identify media assets based not only onwhether or not a word is present, but also on the particular meaning ofthat word. For example, instead of basing a determination on whether ornot a media asset is of the “romance” genre based on the presence of theword “love,” the media guidance application may base the determinationon the presence of the word “love,” synonyms thereof, or other words,the surrounding context of which correspond to “love.” By using latentsemantic analysis, the media guidance application may provide moreaccurate results on the presence and meaning of keywords in a mediaasset.

The media guidance application may compare each keyword vector of theplurality of keyword vectors to the remaining keyword vectors of theplurality of keyword vectors to determine which keyword vectors of theplurality of keyword vectors correspond. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a dot product between each of the plurality ofkeyword vectors and the remaining keywords vectors to determine howsimilar each keyword vector is to the remaining vectors (e.g., if thedot product of the compared vectors exceeds a threshold value). Forexample, by comparing the entire keyword vector to other vectors, themedia guidance application may determine whether or not keywords areassociated with a similar subject matter. For example, if a firstkeyword (e.g., “love”) was often used near (e.g., within a predeterminednumber of words between the keyword and another word) the same words(e.g., the names of three characters in the media asset) as a secondkeyword (e.g., “like”), the media guidance application may determinethat the two keywords relate to similar subject matter (e.g., anemotional connection between the three characters).

In response to determining which keyword vectors of the plurality ofkeyword vectors correspond, the media guidance application maydetermines a subject matter vector based on the corresponding keywordvectors. For example, the media guidance application may determine thatseveral keywords relate to an emotional connection between the threecharacters. Accordingly, the media guidance application may double theweight of a single keyword vector associated with a single keyword toreflect that two keywords vectors actually relate to the same subjectmatter.

The media guidance application may compare the subject matter vector toan attribute vector to determine whether the subject matter vector andthe attribute vector correspond, in which the attribute vectorrepresents a plurality of vectors associated with a selected attribute.For example, upon determining a subject matter vector that representsall the corresponding keywords in the media asset (or in response todetermining that a subject matter vector has a threshold weight), themedia guidance application may compare (e.g., determine a dot product)the subject matter vector to a vector that indicates the variousattributes of a media asset associated with a known tag. For example,the media guidance application may compare the subject matter vector toa vector associated with a “love-triangle” sub-genre.

The media guidance application may tag the selected media asset recordwith the selected attribute in the first database in response todetermining that the subject matter vector and the attribute vectorcorrespond (e.g., if the dot product of the compared vectors exceeds athreshold value). For example, in response to determining that thesubject matter vector associated with the emotional connection betweenthree characters is similar to the attribute vector of the media assetassociated with a “love-triangle” sub-genre, the media guidanceapplication may tag the media asset as belonging to the “love-triangle”sub-genre.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may furtherassociate a keyword weight for each keyword in the media asset in whichthe weight denotes an estimate of the strength of the keyword in thecontext of the media asset. The media guidance application may alsodetermine a subject matter vector based on the keyword vector weightassociated with each of keyword. For example, keywords in the first lineof description for the media asset may have a higher weight thankeywords in other parts of the description. The media asset applicationmay optionally scale the keyword vector with the weight so that thelength of the keyword vector may then represent the weight of thekeyword in the media asset.

In some embodiments, the weight associated with each of the plurality ofvectors associated with the selected attribute is used to determinewhether or not the subject matter vector and the attribute vectorcorrespond. For example, the media guidance application may weighdifferent vectors associated with the attribute vector according to theimportance of the vector in the attribute vector.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods,and/or apparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows and illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows illustrative examples of keywords being detected in mediaassets in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for tagging media assets inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating a vector inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are described herein for a media guidanceapplication that can automatically, or with little human interaction,identify characteristics of media content (e.g., sub-genres, minoractors, etc.) and generate appropriate tags for that media content. Themedia guidance application can thus facilitate user searches based onspecific and narrowly tailored search terms (e.g., sub-genres, minoractors, etc.).

As referred to herein, “a media guidance application” or “guidanceapplication” is an application that facilitates the tagging of mediacontent and/or allows a user to access media content through aninterface. media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be implementedon a user device. As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipmentdevice,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,”“electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “media device”should be understood to mean any device for accessing the contentdescribed above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, anintegrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, adigital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), a digital mediaadapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, aconnected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAYrecorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same.

In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facingscreen and a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multipleangled screens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may havea front facing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these userequipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate thesame content available through a television. Consequently, mediaguidance may be available on these devices, as well. The guidanceprovided may be for content available only through a television, forcontent available only through one or more of other types of userequipment devices, or for content available both through a televisionand one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The mediaguidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e.,provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients onuser equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may implementmedia guidance applications are described in more detail below.Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application may beimplemented on any other computer hardware.

The media guidance application may facilitate the tagging of mediacontent. As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content”should be understood to mean an electronically consumable user asset,such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view programs,on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internetcontent (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.),video clips, audio, content information, pictures, rotating images,documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books,blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games,and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same.Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locatecontent. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should beunderstood to mean content that utilizes at least two different contentforms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, orinteractivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayedor accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a liveperformance.

To identify various characteristics of media content, the media guidanceapplication may mine the media asset (e.g., metadata, subtitles, closedcaptioning information, etc.) and/or media guidance data correspondingto the media asset. As referred to herein, the phrase “media guidancedata” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any data relatedto content or data used in operating the guidance application. Forexample, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

The media asset and/or the media guidance application may be stored in alocal or remote database. For example, the database may be a lookuptable in which the media guidance application may access the recordsassociated with a media asset by inputting an identification of themedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may select amedia asset record from a first database, in which the first databaselists a plurality of available media asset records. For example, themedia guidance application may store a database that lists eachavailable media asset, as well as the various characteristics and/ortags associated with a particular media asset.

The media guidance application may perform various analyses on the mediaasset, media guidance data, and/or any other information associated withthe media asset to identify characteristics about the media asset. Thesecharacteristics may then be compared to known characteristics of mediaassets associated with a selected tag. Based on the comparison, themedia guidance application may determine whether or not to tag the mediaasset with the selected tag. For example, the media guidance applicationmay process the selected media asset record to determine a plurality ofkeywords corresponding to the selected media asset record. For example,the media guidance application may analyze the subtitles or textualdescriptions associated with a given media asset to determine keywordsassociated with the media asset.

As referred to herein, a “word” may include any data associated with amedia asset. For example, a word may include a textual word composed ofalphanumeric characters and/or symbols, computer readable code, or othermediums through which data may be communicated. Thus, a word may includea character string extracted from metadata associated with a media assetas well as a textual word displayed on-screen as part of a subtitle ortextual description of a media asset. As referred to herein, “a keyword”includes any data that may be used to generate a keyword vector. Forexample, keyword may constitute a textual word appearing in a subtitle,closed caption, or textual summary of a media asset. In another example,the keyword may include a string of data pulled from metadata associatedwith a media asset.

To detect words or other data that may constitute keywords, the mediaguidance application may employ a plethora of content recognitiontechniques. For example, the media guidance application may analyzecaptured audio or video data to determine words. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a content recognition module oralgorithm to determine the objects (e.g., words) in received data (e.g.,a captured video). The content recognition module may use objectrecognition techniques such as edge detection, pattern recognition,including, but not limited to, self-learning systems (e.g., neuralnetworks), optical character recognition, on-line character recognition(including, but not limited to, dynamic character recognition, real-timecharacter recognition, intelligent character recognition), and/or anyother suitable technique or method to determine the objects and/orrelationship between the objects in received data in order to identifyindividual words and the relationship of the individual words to otherwords.

For example, the media guidance application may receive data in the formof a video (e.g., captured via a content capture device at a location ofthe user). The video may include a series of frames. For each frame ofthe video, the media guidance application may use a content recognitionmodule or an algorithm to determine the objects in each of the frames orseries of frames. The media guidance application may then determine arelationship between words by determining that the number of words,length of time (e.g., in seconds), or the number of frames between twowords. The media guidance application may record this information foruse in generating a keyword vector as discussed below.

In some embodiments, the content recognition module or algorithm mayalso include speech recognition techniques, including, but not limited,to Hidden Markov Models, dynamic time warping, and/or neural networks(as described above) to translate spoken words into text and/orprocessing audio data. For example, in order to detect a keyword, themedia guidance application may identify a word that was spoken by acharacter in a media asset. The media guidance application may processthe audio data to identify a word that corresponds to the audio data.The content recognition module may also combine multiple techniques todetermine the objects and/or the relationships between objects inreceived data.

In addition, the media application may use multiple types of opticalcharacter recognition and/or fuzzy logic. For example, when processingkeyword(s) retrieved from data (e.g., textual data, translated audiodata, user inputs, etc.). For example, using fuzzy logic, the mediaapplication (e.g., via a content recognition module or algorithmincorporated into, or accessible by, the media application) maydetermine two vectors, fields and/or values to be identical, even thoughthe substance of the data or value is not identical.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may use algorithmsand techniques to compare vectors as well as determine components,angles, and magnitudes of a vector. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a magnitude of a vector using algorithms basedon the Pythagorean theorem. Likewise, the media guidance application mayfind an angle of a vector using an inverse tangent function. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may determine that scalarproduct (or dot product) of two vectors in order to determine an anglebetween two vectors (or to determine an amount at which two vectorscorrespond). Finally, the media guidance application may performweighted vector addition. In such cases, the media guidance applicationmay multiple each vector by an assigned weight before adding the vectorstogether.

In some embodiments, the vectors may be two dimensional, threedimensional, etc. In each case, the media guidance application maydetermine the angle between these vectors. For example, the mediaguidance application may first identify the vectors to be compared. Themedia guidance application may then find the dot product by identifyingthe components of the vectors in each direction. The media guidanceapplication may then multiply the respective components of both vectorsalong each axis with each other. The media guidance application may thenadd the multiplication products together to determine the dot product ofthe two vectors. The media guidance application may then calculate themagnitude of the two vectors using the Pythagorean theorem, and derivethe inverse cosine to determine the angle between to vectors (e.g., aquantification of an amount at which to vectors correspond).

To determine individual keywords from detected words, the media guidanceapplication may apply a set of rules. For example, the rules mayindicate the words that may (or may not) constitute keywords and/or thetypes of words that may (or may not) constitute keywords. For example,if the rules indicate a list of words that may constitute keywords, themedia guidance application may compare detected words to the list. Inresponse to determining that a detected word corresponds to a word on alist, the media guidance application may designate the detected word asa keyword. In another example, the rules may determine whether or not aword is a type of word that may constitute a keyword. For example, therules may indicate that only proper nouns, verbs, words beginning in acapitalized letter may constitute a keyword. In such cases, the mediaguidance application may cross-reference a detected word with a databaselisting a type associated with available words. After inputting thedetected word, the database may output a type of that word. The mediaguidance application may then determine whether or not the typeindicating the detected word may constitute a keyword.

The media guidance application may also generate vectors associated witheach keyword. The media guidance application may store the keywordvectors in a database. The components in a respective keyword vector mayindicate a relationship between a respective keyword (i.e., the keywordof the keyword vector) and other words (which may themselves constitutekeywords associated with other keyword vectors) associated with a mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may apply latentsemantic analysis to generate a series of keyword vectors, in which thevector indicates a meaning of the keyword based on the words surroundingthe keyword. For example, by applying latent semantic analysis, themedia guidance application may identify media assets not only based onwhether or not a word is present, but the particular meaning of thatword.

For example, instead of basing a determination on whether or not a mediaasset includes the actor, “Tom Cruise,” based on the presence of theword “Tom Cruise,” the media guidance application may base thedetermination on the presence of the word “Tom,” “Cruise,” or otherwords, the surrounding context of which correspond, to “Tom Cruise”(e.g., “Mr. Cruise”).

Using latent semantic analysis, the media guidance application maymathematically express each of the words associated with a media asset.The media guidance application may then generate vectors that representthe expression. The media guidance application may then compare thevectors to other vectors (representing expressions of other keywordsassociated with the media asset) to determine whether or not thekeywords correspond.

For example, a single keyword vector may indicate the words surroundinga particular keyword. Likewise, the keyword vector may indicate thenumber of words between the given keyword and other words (or otherkeywords) associated with a media asset. The media guidance applicationthen expresses these relationships in the form a vector. For example,each component of the vector may be based on a quantification of thenumber of words between a keyword and another word (or if the other wordeven surrounds the keyword).

The media guidance application may compare each keyword vector of theplurality of keyword vectors to the remaining keyword vectors of theplurality of keyword vectors to determine which keyword vectors of theplurality of keyword vectors correspond. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a dot product of two keyword vectors. The dotproduct indicates the level of similarity between two vectors. Forexample, the angle between two keyword vectors denotes a relationshipbetween a respective keyword and one other word corresponding to theselected media asset. The media guidance application may then comparethis value (i.e., the dot product) to a threshold value or range. Asreferred to herein, the “threshold value” or “threshold range” is avalue or range that indicates a minimum amount of similarity between twovectors. The media guidance application may base the threshold value orrange on a user input, industry standard, or other measurements. In someembodiments, the threshold value or range may be dynamically adjustedbased on the media asset or the amount of data associated with a mediaasset.

If the dot product exceeds the threshold value, is within the thresholdrange of values, or otherwise corresponds to the threshold value, themedia guidance application may determine that the two keyword vectorsused to generate the dot product correspond. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine a dot product between each of theplurality of keyword vectors and the remaining keywords vectors todetermine how similar each keyword vector is to the remaining vectors.For example, by comparing the entire keyword vector to other vectors,the media guidance application may determine whether or not keywords areassociated with a similar subject matter, as well as which keywordvectors among the plurality of keyword vectors are similar.

For example, if a first keyword (e.g., “Robert”) was often used near(e.g., within a predetermined number of words between the keyword andanother word) the same words (e.g., the name of a character) as a secondkeyword (e.g., “Bob”), the media guidance application may determine thatthe two keywords relate to similar subject matter (e.g., the identity ofa character). In another example, the media guidance application maygroup several keywords that are related to an emotional connectionbetween the three characters into a single subject matter. For example,if a first keyword (e.g., “love”) was often used in context of anemotional connection, and another related keyword (e.g., “like”), themedia guidance application may group the two into the same subjectmatter vector to denote that the two keywords relate to similar subjectmatter.

In response to determining which keyword vectors of the plurality ofkeyword vectors correspond, the media guidance application may determinea subject matter vector based on the corresponding keyword vectors. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that severalkeywords relate (e.g., “Robert” and “Bob”) relate to the same subjectmatter (e.g., a character in the media asset) despite the differentspellings of the keywords. Accordingly, the media guidance applicationmay combine the keyword vectors when determining a subject matter vectorfor the media asset.

In some embodiments, in response to determining which keyword vectors ofthe plurality of keyword vectors correspond, the media guidanceapplication may also determine a vector to represent the subject matter.Additionally, the media guidance application may associate a weight withthe subject matter that can be formed from the individual keywordweights to reflect that several keywords vectors actually relate to thesame subject matter within that media asset.

The media guidance application may also be able to generate a vector fora specific attribute (such as “love-triangle”). The media guidanceapplication may make this determination by considering the various mediaassets corresponding to the attribute and analyzing the subject matterscorresponding to the individual media assets and grouping the subjectmatter vectors corresponding the media assets having the attribute. Themedia guidance application may then associate a weight to each groupbased on the weights of the individual subject matters in the group. Themedia guidance application may choose only those groups of subjectmatters that have weight greater than some threshold. The mediaapplication then makes a vector for the attribute using the vectors andweights associated with the chosen groups.

As referred to herein, “a subject matter vector” is a vector thatdescribes a particular subject matter of a media asset. It should benoted that a given media asset may have a plurality of subject matters,each associated with different subject matter. For example, a givensubject matter vector may correspond to a genre or sub-genre of a mediaasset. In such a case, the subject matter vector may be based on keywordvectors that describe keywords associated with a genre or sub-genre.

In addition to a plurality of subject matter vectors being associatedwith a single media asset, the media guidance application may associateeach subject matter vector with a particular weight. For example, theweight of a particular subject matter vector may indicate the number ofkeyword vectors used to create the subject matter vector. Thus, theweight may also include the importance of the subject matter vector whendetermining a particular tag to assign to the media asset.

Additionally, it should be noted that the size of the keyword vectorupon which a subject matter vector is based may affect the weight of thesubject matter vector. For example, a large keyword vector (e.g.,indicating that a particular keyword often occurred in a media asset)may cause the media guidance application to weigh a subject mattervector based on that keyword vector more heavily than a small keywordvector (e.g., indicating that a particular keyword did not appear oftenin a media asset).

For example, the media guidance application may weigh a first subjectmatter vector, which is based on three keyword vectors, three times theamount that a second subject matter vector, which is based on a singlekeyword vector, is weighed. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may compare the weight to a threshold weight inorder to determine whether or not the subject matter vector should beused to determine a tag for the media asset. For example, a thresholdweight may indicate the minimum amount of weight that a given subjectmatter vector must have to be compared to an attribute vector.

The media guidance application may compare the subject matter vector toan attribute vector to determine whether the subject matter vector andthe attribute vector correspond. As referred to herein, an “attributevector” is a vector that includes a plurality of vectors associated witha selected attribute. As referred to herein, an “attribute” is anycharacteristics used to distinguish one media asset (or group of mediaassets) from another media asset (or another group of media assets. Forexample, an attribute may include one or more media assets categorizedbased on whether or not the media asset includes or is associated withone or more characteristics (e.g., genres of the media asset, conceptsof the media asset, cliché s in the media asset, stereotypicalcharacters in the media asset, personalities in the media asset rolesplayed by an actor in the media asset, themes of the media asset, tonesof the media asset, objects appearing in the media asset, color palettesused by the media assets, moods of the media asset, time-periodsdiscussed in the media asset, numbers of actors in the media asset,ratings of the media asset, languages associated with the media asset,and/or any other media guidance data associated with the media asset).For example, an attribute vector may correspond to a subject mattervector (or a plurality of subject matter vectors) of a media asset thatis known to have a certain attribute (e.g., a genre). Thus, the mediaguidance application may compare a subject matter vector (e.g.,associated with a genre of a selected media asset) to the attributevector to determine whether or not the selected media asset is aparticular genre. For example, upon determining a subject matter vectorthat represents all the corresponding keywords in the media asset (or inresponse to determining that a subject matter vector has a thresholdweight), the media guidance application may compare the subject mattervector to the attribute vector by determining a dot product of thevectors. The dot product may then be compared to a threshold value todetermine whether or not the media asset associated with the subjectmatter vector corresponds to the attribute associated with the attributevector. If so, the media guidance application may tag the media asset(or a record associated with the media asset in a database) with theattribute.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may selectparticular attribute to search for based on the reliability of thesubject matters in determining an attribute. For example, if subjectmatter is a good indicator of an attribute, then that attribute may besearched for. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidanceapplication may search for particular attributes based on industrystandards or user selections.

In some embodiments, the attribute vector may include a plurality ofvectors each associated with a subject matter related to the attribute.Furthermore, each vector may be weighed according to the importance ofthe vector in determining whether or not a media asset corresponds tothe attribute. For example, the weight associated with each of theplurality of vectors associated with the selected attribute is used todetermine whether or not the subject matter vector and the attributevector correspond. For example, the media guidance application may weighdifferent vectors associated with the attribute vector according to theimportance of the vector in the attribute vector.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine anattribute vector by grouping subject matter vectors that correspond tomedia assets known to correspond to the attribute. For example, themedia guidance application may group subject matter vectorscorresponding to media assets having the attribute and associate aweight to each group based on the weights of the individual subjectmatters in the group. The media guidance application may then select thegroups of subject matters that have weight greater than a thresholdweight. Based on the selections, the media guidance application maygenerate a vector for the attribute from the vectors and weightsassociated with each group.

In some embodiments, The media guidance application may determinemultiple subject matters of a media asset that correspond to aparticular attribute vector and may use the closeness of each subjectmatter along with the corresponding weight of the subject matter todetermine a final weight of the attribute for the media asset. The mediaguidance application may then compare the final weight of the attributeto a threshold value to determine whether or not a media asset should betagged as corresponding to the attribute.

As referred to herein, a “tag” is any computer-readable data thatindicates an attribute about a media asset. For example, a tag mayinclude a field in a database that is associated with a particulargenre, indicates the presence of a particular actor, etc. In someembodiments, the tags may allow a database featuring a plurality of tagsto be searched based on one or more search terms. For example, a searchrequest for a particular genre may return media listings for allavailable media assets that are tagged as constituting the particulargenre.

The tags may indicate any attribute of the media asset. For example, thetag may indicate the presence (or lack thereof) of any media guidancedata. In another example, the tag may indicate a category, no matter howgeneric or unique. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the tags mayinvolve manual or semi-automatic verification from one or more users.For example, an operator may manually review all tags for qualitycontrol. In another example, the tags may be verified by crowd sourcingthe task to a plurality of users (e.g., via a social network). In suchcases, the media guidance application may ask users to verify whether ornot a particular media asset corresponds to a particular taggedattribute. If so (e.g., a quota of users verifies or fails to oppose atagging), the media guidance application updates a database listingmedia asset tag with the verified tag.

The media guidance application may continuously or periodically retrieveand/or update tags associated with media assets. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may retrieve and/or update tags based onone or more triggers. For example, in response to detecting that one ormore media listings are displayed to a user and/or the user hasrequested access to an electronic program guide (e.g., as discussedbelow in relation to FIGS. 1-2). The media guidance application mayretrieve and/or update tags associated with one or more media assets.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L. P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412.

Communications with the content source 416 and media guidance datasource 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, butare shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows illustrative examples of a keywords being detected in mediaassets. For example, as discussed above, the media guidance applicationmay use numerous techniques to identify words associated with a mediaasset, identify keywords within those words, and to identifyrelationships between the keywords and other words for use in generatingkeyword vectors. It should be noted that FIG. 5 shows two examples inwhich words associated with a media asset appear on-screen. However, themedia guidance application may also detect words associated with a mediaasset even if the words are not presented on-screen.

FIG. 5 shows two examples of display screens that may be generated fordisplay by a media guidance application. For example, display 500 mayrepresent display 100 (FIG. 1) after a user has requested additionalinformation about program listing 108 (FIG. 1). For example, in responseto a user input (e.g., via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)), the mediaguidance application may present display 500, which features a textualdescription of the media asset associated with program listing 108 (FIG.1).

In display 500, a textual summary is displayed that features numerouswords. Furthermore, display 500 includes several words (e.g., keywords502, 504, 506, and 508) that the media guidance application hasdetermined constitute keywords. In display 500, keywords 502, 504, 506,and 508 are bolded to indicate their selection as keywords. In responseto the selection of keywords 502, 504, 506, and 508 as keywords, themedia guidance application may express each of keywords 502, 504, 506,and 508 as a keyword vector.

For example, values associated with akeyword vector may corresponds tothe words around a respective keyword as well as the number of wordsbetween the word and the keyword. For example, the media guidanceapplication may apply latent semantic indexing to each keyword (e.g.,using singular value decomposition) to identify patterns in therelationships between the terms and concepts contained in anunstructured collection of words associated with the media asset. Forexample, using latent semantic indexing, the media guidance applicationmay determine keywords that have the same meaning (even though thekeywords are different) based on the context (e.g., the wordssurrounding the keyword) in which those keywords are used.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that, becausekeyword 506 is near 502, a particular definition may be implied (e.g.,the phenomena of the physical world) as opposed to a different meaning(e.g., the basic or inherent features of something). In another example,a characteristic indicated by a keyword may change based on the contextof the keywords. For example, in some circumstances keyword 508 (e.g.,“ghost”) may be associated with a horror genre, as “ghosts” are normallyassociated with horror movies. However, the words surrounding keyword508 may indicate that this particular instance of keyword 508 is not agood indicator of genre. For example, while keyword 508 may typically beassociated with the horror genre, the words around keyword 508(including keywords 502, 504, and 506) are not associated with thehorror genre.

In display 550, subtitle data is displayed that features numerous words.Furthermore, display 550 includes a word (e.g., keyword 552) that themedia guidance application has determined constitutes a keyword. Askeyword 552 and keyword 554 constitute an identical word (e.g., “love”),the media guidance application may generate a single keyword vector forboth keywords 552 and 554. For example, the keyword vector for bothkeywords 552 and 554 may have twice the magnitude of a similar keywordvector that is based on only a single instance of its respectivekeyword. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance applicationmay generate two keyword vectors, one for keyword 552 and one forkeyword 554. For example, while the spelling and/or meaning of keywords552 and 554 is the same, the media guidance application may determinethat the words around the respective keywords differ.

For example, both keywords 552 and 554 are verbs that indicate anemotional connection between two objects (e.g., two people). However,keyword 552 indicates an emotional connection between two differentobjects (e.g., John and Joan) than keyword 554 indicates (e.g., Joan andJake). The differences in objects surrounding each keyword may berecorded in a keyword vector associated with each keyword and used bythe media guidance application to determine that the media assetassociated with keywords 552 and 554 features multiple objects withdifferent emotional connections. Accordingly, a subject matter vectorgenerated based on the keywords vector may also indicate suchinformation, and when compared to an attribute vector (e.g., asdiscussed below in relation to FIG. 6) and associated with a “lovetriangle” sub-genre may indicate to the media guidance application thatthe media asset should be tagged as a “love triangle” sub-genre.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for tagging media assets. Itshould be noted that process 600, or any step thereof, could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. Forexample, process 600 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on userequipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order to tag a media asset.In addition, one or more steps of process 600 may be incorporated intoor combined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment(e.g., process 700 (FIG. 7)).

At step 602, the media guidance application selects (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a media asset record from a first database(e.g., located at storage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), mediaguidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessiblevia communications network 414 (FIG. 4)), in which the first databaselists a plurality of available media asset records. For example, themedia guidance application may store (e.g., at storage 308, mediacontent source 416 (FIG. 4), media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4),and/or any other location accessible via communications network 414(FIG. 4)) a database that lists each available media asset as well asthe various characteristics and/or tags associated with a particularmedia asset.

At step 604, the media guidance application processes (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the selected media asset record to determine aplurality of keywords corresponding to a selected media asset record.For example, the media guidance application may analyze (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the subtitles or textual descriptionsassociated with a given media asset (e.g., as discussed in relation toFIG. 5)) to determine keywords associated with the media asset.

At step 606, the media guidance application stores (e.g., at storage308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), media guidance data source 418(FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessible via communicationsnetwork 414 (FIG. 4)) a plurality of keyword vectors in a seconddatabase, in which each keyword vector corresponds to a keyword of theplurality of keywords, and in which a dot product between two keywordvectors of the plurality of keyword vector indicates a level ofsimilarity between respective keywords of the two keyword vectors. Forexample, the media guidance application may apply (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) latent semantic analysis to determine a seriesof keyword vectors, in which the vector indicates a meaning of thekeyword based on the words surrounding the keyword. For example, byapplying latent semantic analysis, the media guidance application mayidentify media assets not only based on whether or not a word ispresent, but the particular meaning of that word. For example, insteadof basing a determination on whether or not a media asset features anactor “Tom Cruise” based on the presence of the word “cruise” in thedescription of the media asset, the media guidance application may basethe determination on the context of word “cruise” (e.g., whether or notthe context of the word indicate that the word is associated with theactor, “Tom Cruise”). By using latent semantic analysis, the mediaguidance application may provide more accurate results on the presenceand meaning of keywords in a media asset.

At step 608, the media guidance application compares (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) each keyword vector of the plurality of keywordvectors to the remaining keyword vectors of the plurality of keywordvectors to determine which keyword vectors of the plurality of keywordvectors correspond. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a dot productbetween each of the plurality of keyword vectors and the remainingkeywords vectors to determine how similar each keyword vector is to theremaining vectors (e.g., if the dot product of the compared vectorsexceeds a threshold value). For example, by comparing (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the entire keyword vector to other vectors, themedia guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not keywords are associated with a similarsubject matter. For example, if a keyword (e.g., “basketball”) was oftenused near (e.g., within a predetermined number of words between thekeyword and another word) words that indicate a genre of the mediaasset, the media guidance application may determine that the word“basketball” indicates a genre of the media asset (e.g., a sportsgenre).

At step 610, in response to determining (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) which keyword vectors of the plurality of keyword vectorscorrespond, the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a subject matter vector based on thecorresponding keyword vectors. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))that several keywords relate to an emotional connection between thethree characters. Accordingly, the media guidance application may doublethe weight of a single keyword vector associated with a single keywordto reflect that two keywords vectors actually relate to the same subjectmatter.

At step 612, the media guidance application compares (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the subject matter vector to an attribute vector(e.g., retrieved from storage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4),media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other locationaccessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)) to determine whetherthe subject matter vector and the attribute vector correspond, in whichthe attribute vector includes a plurality of vectors associated with aselected attribute. For example, upon determining (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a subject matter vector that represents all thecorresponding keywords in the media asset (or in response to determiningthat a subject matter vector has a threshold weight), the media guidanceapplication may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) thesubject matter vector to a vector that indicates the various attributesof a media asset associated with a known tag. For example, the mediaguidance application may compare the subject matter vector to a vectorassociated with a media asset that has a known attribute (e.g., thesub-genre is known).

At step 614, the media guidance application tags (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the selected media asset record (e.g., locatedat storage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), media guidance datasource 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) with the selected attribute in thefirst database in response to determining that the subject matter vectorand the attribute vector correspond (e.g., if the dot product of thecompared vectors exceeds a threshold value). For example, in response todetermining (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that the subjectmatter vector associated with the media asset corresponds to theattribute vector, the media guidance application may tag (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the media asset as having the sameattribute as the media asset associated with the attribute vector.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may additionallyassociate a keyword vector weight with each of the two keyword vectorsbased on a keyword weight corresponding to the respective keywords. Themedia guidance application may then determine the subject matter vectorbased on the keyword vector weight associated with each of the twokeyword vectors. For example, the location of the keywords among thekeywords associated with a media asset may depend on the weight that themedia guidance application gives the respective keyword. For example,keywords in the title of the media asset may have a higher weight thankeywords in the description of the media asset. The media assetapplication may optionally scale the keyword vector with the weight sothat the length of the keyword vector may then represent the weight ofthe keyword in the media asset.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 6.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating a vector. Itshould be noted that process 700 or any step thereof could be performedon, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example,process 700 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on user equipment402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order to generate a vector. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 700 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment(e.g., process 600 (FIG. 6)).

At step 702, the media guidance application retrieves (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a first vector from a plurality of vectors(e.g., located at storage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), mediaguidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessiblevia communications network 414 (FIG. 4)). For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a keyword vector from a plurality ofkeyword vectors or may retrieve a subject matter vector from a pluralityof subject matter vectors.

At step 704, the media guidance application retrieves (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a second vector from a plurality of vectors(e.g., located at storage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), mediaguidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessiblevia communications network 414 (FIG. 4)). For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a different keyword vector from aplurality of keyword vectors or may retrieve a different subject mattervector from a plurality of subject matter vectors.

At step 706, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a dot product of the first vector andthe second vector. For example, by determining a dot product between thefirst vector and the second vector, the media guidance application maydetermine the level of similarity between the two vectors. For example,if the first vector and second vector are keyword vectors, determiningthe dot product of the two keyword vectors may indicate the level ofsimilarity between the keywords associated with the two keyword vectors.In another example, if the first vector and the second vector aresubject matter vectors, determining the dot product of the two keywordvectors may indicate the level of similarity between the subject mattersassociated with the two subject matter vectors.

At step 708, the media guidance application retrieves (e.g., fromstorage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), media guidance datasource 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)) a threshold value. The thresholdvalue may indicate a required level of similarity. For example, if thetwo vectors are keyword vectors, the threshold value may indicate alevel of similarity between the two vectors that is required to combinethe two keyword vectors into a subject matter vector.

At step 710, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not the dot product exceedsthe threshold value. For example, if the two vectors are keywordvectors, the dot product exceeding the threshold value may indicate thatthe keyword vectors should be combined into a subject matter vector. Ifthe dot product does exceed the threshold value, the media guidanceapplication proceeds to step 718 and designates the first vector and thesecond vector as corresponding before proceeding to step 712. If the dotproduct does not exceed the threshold value, the media guidanceapplication proceeds to step 712.

At step 712, the media guidance application determines (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or not there are additionalvectors in the plurality of vectors. For example, if the first vectorand second vector are keyword vectors, the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether or notthere are additional keyword vectors in the plurality of keyword vectors(e.g., at storage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), media guidancedata source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)). In another example, if the firstvector and second vector are subject matter vectors, the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))whether or not there are additional subject matter vectors in theplurality of subject matter vectors (e.g., at storage 308, media contentsource 416 (FIG. 4), media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or anyother location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)).

If the media guidance application determines that there are additionalvectors in the plurality of vectors, the media guidance applicationproceeds to step 714. At step 714, the media guidance applicationretrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) an additionalvector before proceeding to step 716. For example, if the first vectorand second vector are keyword vectors, the media guidance applicationretrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) an additionalkeyword vector from the plurality of keyword vectors (e.g., at storage308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), media guidance data source 418(FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessible via communicationsnetwork 414 (FIG. 4)). In another example, if the first vector andsecond vector are subject matter vectors, the media guidance applicationretrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) an additionalsubject matter vector from the plurality of subject matter vectors(e.g., at storage 308, media content source 416 (FIG. 4), media guidancedata source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any other location accessible viacommunications network 414 (FIG. 4)).

At step 716, the media guidance application determines a dot product ofthe first vector and the additional vector before proceeding to step710. For example, the media guidance application may compare the firstvector to each vector in the plurality of vectors to determine whetheror not the vectors correspond. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may perform process 700 on each vector in the plurality ofvectors. Accordingly, the media guidance application may determine whichvectors of the plurality of vectors correspond to each other.

At step 720, the media guidance application generates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a vector based on the corresponding vectors. Forexample, if the vectors are keyword vectors, the vectors may be combinedinto a subject matter vector. In another example, if the vectors aresubject matter vectors, the subject matter vectors may be combined intoa subject matter vector that is weighted (e.g., when compared to anattribute vector) based on the number of subject matter vectors that arecombined.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

1. A method for updating database tags for media content, the methodcomprising: selecting a media asset record from a first database,wherein the first database lists a plurality of available media assetrecords; processing the selected media asset record to determine aplurality of keywords corresponding to selected media asset record;storing a plurality of keyword vectors in a second database, whereineach keyword vector corresponds to a keyword of the plurality ofkeywords, and wherein a dot product between two keyword vectors of theplurality of keyword vector indicates a level of similarity betweenrespective keywords of the two keyword vectors; comparing each keywordvector of the plurality of keyword vectors to the remaining keywordvectors of the plurality of keyword vectors to determine which keywordvectors of the plurality of keyword vectors correspond; in response todetermining which keyword vectors of the plurality of keyword vectorscorrespond, determining a subject matter vector based on thecorresponding keyword vectors; comparing the subject matter vector to anattribute vector to determine whether the subject matter vector and theattribute vector correspond, wherein the attribute vector includes aplurality of vectors associated with a selected attribute; and inresponse to determining that the subject matter vector and the attributevector correspond, tagging the selected media asset record with theselected attribute in the first database.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein each of the keywords in the plurality of keywords is identifiedfrom subtitle data or descriptive textual data associated with the mediaasset.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: associating akeyword vector weight with each of the two keyword vectors based on akeyword weight corresponding to the respective keywords; and determiningthe subject matter vector based on the keyword vector weight associatedwith each of the two keyword vectors.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereina weight associated with each of the plurality of vectors associatedwith the selected attribute is used to determine whether the subjectmatter vector and the attribute vector correspond.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein comparing each keyword vector of the plurality ofkeyword vectors to the remaining keyword vectors of the plurality ofkeyword vectors to determine which keyword vectors of the keywordvectors correspond, further comprises: determining a first dot productof a first keyword vector of the plurality of keyword vectors and asecond keyword vector of the plurality of keyword vectors; retrieving afirst threshold value from the second database; and comparing the dotproduct to the first threshold value.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereincomparing the subject matter vector to an attribute vector to determinewhether the subject matter vector and the attribute vector correspond,wherein the attribute vector includes a plurality of values associatedwith a selected attribute, further comprises: determining a second dotproduct of the subject matter vector and the attribute vector;retrieving a second threshold value from the second database; andcomparing the second dot product to the second threshold value.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the selected attribute is a genre.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a user request formedia assets corresponding to the selected attribute; and generating fordisplay a listing for the selected media asset record based on thetagging.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising weighting thesubject matter vector based on a number of keyword vectors of theplurality of keyword vectors that correspond to the subject mattervector.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determiningwhether to compare the subject matter vector to the attribute vectorbased on a weight corresponding to the subject matter vector.
 11. Asystem for updating database tags for media content, the systemcomprising: storage circuitry configured to store a first database,wherein the first database lists a plurality of available media assetrecords; and control circuitry configured to: select a media assetrecord from the first database; process the selected media asset recordto determine a plurality of keywords corresponding to selected mediaasset record; store a plurality of keyword vectors in a second database,wherein each keyword vector corresponds to a keyword of the plurality ofkeywords, and wherein a dot product between two keyword vectors of theplurality of keyword vector indicates a level of similarity betweenrespective keywords of the two keyword vectors; compare each keywordvector of the plurality of keyword vectors to the remaining keywordvectors of the plurality of keyword vectors to determine which keywordvectors of the plurality of keyword vectors correspond; in response todetermining which keyword vectors of the plurality of keyword vectorscorrespond, determine a subject matter vector based on the correspondingkeyword vectors; compare the subject matter vector to an attributevector to determine whether the subject matter vector and the attributevector correspond, wherein the attribute vector includes a plurality ofvectors associated with a selected attribute; and in response todetermining that the subject matter vector and the attribute vectorcorrespond, tag the selected media asset record with the selectedattribute in the first database.
 12. The system of claim 11, whereineach of the keywords in the plurality of keywords is identified fromsubtitle data or descriptive textual data associated with the mediaasset.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: associate a keyword vector weight with each ofthe two keyword vectors based on a keyword weight corresponding to therespective keywords; and determine the subject matter vector based onthe keyword vector weight associated with each of the two keywordvectors.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein a weight associated witheach of the plurality of vectors associated with the selected attributeis used to determine whether the subject matter vector and the attributevector correspond.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry configured to compare each keyword vector of the plurality ofkeyword vectors to the remaining keyword vectors of the plurality ofkeyword vectors to determine which keyword vectors of the keywordvectors correspond is further configured to: determine a first dotproduct of a first keyword vector of the plurality of keyword vectorsand a second keyword vector of the plurality of keyword vectors;retrieve a first threshold value from the second database; and comparethe dot product to the first threshold value.
 16. The system of claim11, wherein the control circuitry configured to compare the subjectmatter vector to an attribute vector to determine whether the subjectmatter vector and the attribute vector correspond, wherein the attributevector includes a plurality of values associated with a selectedattribute is further configured to: determine a second dot product ofthe subject matter vector and the attribute vector; retrieve a secondthreshold value from the second database; and compare the second dotproduct to the second threshold value.
 17. The system of claim 11,wherein the selected attribute is a genre.
 18. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: receive a userrequest for media assets corresponding to the selected attribute; andgenerate for display a listing for the selected media asset record basedon the tagging.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to weight the subject matter vectorbased on a number of keyword vectors of the plurality of keyword vectorsthat correspond to the subject matter vector.
 20. The system of claim19, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determinewhether to compare the subject matter vector to the attribute vectorbased on a weight corresponding to the subject matter vector. 21-50.(canceled)